The concept of conditional specification is not new. It is likely that earlier investigators in this area were deterred by computational difficulties encountered in the analysis of data following con ditionally specified models. Readily available computing power has swept away that roadblock. A broad spectrum of new flexible models may now be added to the researcher's tool box. This mono graph provides a preliminary guide to these models. Further development of inferential techniques, especially those involving concomitant variables, is clearly called for. We are grateful for invaluable...

Efforts to visualize multivariate densities necessarily involve the use of cross-sections, or, equivalently, conditional densities. This book focuses on distributions that are completely specified in terms of conditional densities. They are appropriately used in any modeling situation where conditional information is completely or partially available. All statistical researchers seeking more flexible models than those provided by classical models will find conditionally specified distributions of interest.